Government & Society

The plight of Iraqi refugees is gaining American attention because of key Democratic leading senators like Carl Levin and Ted Kennedy. A Chaldean trucker testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees. The subcommittee met on Tuesday to probe the issue of the plight of refugees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Led by staunch supporter of refugee support, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy the subcommittee highlighted the living causalities of war ignored by the Bush administration.

“The desperate situation in Iraq has created hundreds of thousands of refugees who are virtually unknown to the rest of the world,” Kennedy said. “We can’t continue to ignore their plight.”

Ankawa, IRAQ– A century old seminary has been forced to leave Baghdad. Under pressure of violence and continual attacks the Chaldean Seminary and Theological University was forced to close. Baghdad stands as the center of the civil strife in Iraq between violent Muslim Shi’ite and Sunni groups. Christians in the region have been forced to leave Baghdad after numerous killings, kidnappings, and torture of community leaders. As the capital of Iraq is being emptied of its Christians, property and land is being stolen by Sunni and Shi’ite militias.

Erbil’s Chaldean bishop, Mgr Rabban al-Qas, said that the doors to the Chaldean Major Seminary and Babel College, Iraq’s only theological faculty run by the Chaldean Church, have reopened in Kurdistan after shutting down because of the growing insecurity in the Iraq. The two institutions were in fact officially inaugurated last Thursday after moving from Baghdad to Ankawa, near Erbil, in Kurdistan.

Michigan, USA - The United States continues to come under criticism by humanitarian groups for ignoring their responsibility in providing for up to 3 million Iraqis displaced from their homes. American reputation and leadership continues to plummet among international leaders after continuing allegations of an illegal war against Iraq and ignoring the humanitarian crisis aftermath.

Echoing former US president Fords implication that the US may be liable for taking unfounded preemptive military action against Iraq, calls for a war tribunal against the US increases across the globe

Aid organizations report a rapidly mounting crisis of refugees inside Iraq and in neighboring countries as thousands flee sectarian violence every day. The United Nations estimates that there are more than 1.5 million Iraqis displaced within the country and a similar number living as refugees in Jordan, Syria and elsewhere.

The Michigan based Chaldean Federation of America (CFA) has been working tirelessly with US legislators to bring to light the crisis and need for support. The CFA has expressed positive working relations with legislatures like Democrat Senator Carl Levin but continues to run into obstacle after obstacle dealing with the State Department or White House administration.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Like other minority members in Iraq, Mardon Matrood, a 44-year-old Assyrian shopkeeper in Baghdad, has had enough of the country's sectarian violence.

"Minorities in Iraq are targeted by insurgents and militias, who want us out of the country as they promote what they call the 'cleansing of Iraq, of non-Muslim communities'," said Matrood who is living with his family of six in an abandoned government building.

Four months ago Matrood's family failed to pay a ransom of US $50,000 to kidnappers who had abducted his nephew. The nephew was later found dead.

"We are a poor family. We couldn't pay [the ransom money] and after two weeks we were informed that the police had found his body near a mosque in Adhamiyah district (northern Baghdad). It was totally mangled, burned and tortured," Matrood said.

Spiraling sectarian violence has threatened the decades-long peaceful coexistence in Iraq between members of different religions, sects and tribes. Now Sunni and Shi'ite extremists are targeting minorities in a bid to force them out of the country.

Shiite and Sunni imams in Kirkuk went in person to deliver Christmas greetings to the Chaldean archbishop, Mgr Louis Sako, in an atmosphere characterized by “sincere will of dialogue and mutual understanding”.

Michigan, USA – Chaldeans are applauding the good work of the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The firm is appealing a federal judge's recent approval of a virulently anti-Catholic resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, a Carter appointee and one time counsel for the liberal extremist National Organization for Women (NOW). The Law Center is bringing to light the blatant abuse of power to deride the constitution.

Chaldean Lawyers have taken interest in how the San Francisco court system seems to have hijacked the rule of law for their personal agenda. The activisms say many legal scholars are appalling and ironically hypocritical.

Not surprisingly the activist judge Marilyn Patel ruled that the Board resolution condemning Catholic moral teaching on homosexuality and urging the Archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities of San Francisco to defy Church directives does not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Baghdad, Iraq – Continual pleas for neutrality and safety by the indigenous people of Iraq have fallen on deaf ears. The Chaldean minorities remains targets by insurgents bent on destabilizing Iraq and turn the modern nation into a fanatic Islamic regime. Chaldeans are not only the targets of Islamic fundamentalist but also Kurdish, Shia, and Sunni militias that pick apart the minority group in order to claim their land or raise ransom money to fund their military groups.

“We have become pawns in this deadly game of chess that threatens to wipe out a people who have remained in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) for over ten-thousand years,” says Yousif Kanno a Chaldean antiquity historian.

ARBIL, Iraq -– Unknown assailants bombed the entrance of a Catholic church in Mosul last week, destroying three sets of doors as well as windows in the church, monastery and guest house.

A source near the church at the time of the November blast said that the explosion at 7 p.m. shattered the exterior iron doors of the Dominican Clock Church compound and flattened two sets of wood doors. The discharge ripped through the windows of the monastery chapel where Dominican priests were holding evening prayer.

No one was harmed in the blast.

“The whole area heard the explosion, it was so big,” said one eyewitness of the destruction, speaking to Compass Direct News on condition of anonymity the evening after the attack.

Baghadad, Iraq - Former medical volunteer in Iraq, Ramy Bakko shrugs and nods his head in confusion over the proliferation of the Red Cross emblem. “Evil works in small ways. Evil works to divide and conquer. These new Muslim Iraqi people want to take over our country.” Ramy Bakko was attacked for using Red Cross equipment in a Muslim country. “They say I should be a Red Crescent. I tell them I am, I show them my shirt and badge, they call me a spy and that I am to be killed. If not by God’s grace I would have been killed if one of the men did not recognize me for helping his child. They let me go free and say if I use a Red Cross they will spill my red blood.”

The Chaldean medical doctor serves for the international aid society that provides humanitarian aid during times of war. Often protected under the Red Cross or Red Crescent societies volunteers are called to help the injured. “I have no job so I try to help those who are hurt. I don’t care if they are Christian, Muslim, or Jew. I try to save a life. Because as you can see, my reward is one day my life will be saved.”

The Michigan chapter of the Chaldean Caucus presents the 2006 midterm election results. Other chapters of the Chaldean Caucus across America are submitting their results and will be posted on the community website.

The Chaldean Caucus will be holding voter registration drives, candidate recruitment, and information sessions for the Chaldean community. Please check with your local chapter for a schedule of events.

The Chaldean Caucus is a non-partisan organization with a mission of educating policy makers about Chaldeans and encouraging policies that support American Chaldeans.

The Michigan chapter of the Chaldean Caucus makes the following recommendations for the midterm elections for candidates and proposals that best support the Chaldean community, the state of Michigan, and America.

The Chaldean Caucus is an approved organization of the community website and will be posting policy related issues that impact the American Chaldean community on this website.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. The visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!"

Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad.

The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.

Washington D.C., USA - Soaring violence against Christians in Iraq – including the alleged crucifixion of a teenage boy in Basra - has prompted the Catholic Church to call for a safe haven to protect minority groups as the country slides toward civil war.

The American Catholic bishops have also asked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to grant asylum to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians who have fled their homes to escape persecution.

American Catholics are stunned that the Democratic Party would stoop so low as to purposely mislead and manipulate Catholics about their faith and sacred teachings. The fake 'Catholic Voters Guide' Published by Former Aide to John Kerry attempts to recapture the hemorrhaging of Catholic voters rejecting the Democratic Party.

Chaldean Caucus member and former Democrat Wendy Jaberow, who became a Republican because of these sorts of underhanded and deceitful efforts, feels the Fake Catholic Voters Guide is another example of the shameful values the Democrats have embraced. “They believe that ‘any means necessary’ is justifiable for them to gain power. They have sold their souls to the devil.”

Michigan, USA - Students, family members, teachers, employees, and alumni of Marian high school are outraged. The all-girl private Catholic high school has come under attack by homosexual activists. “The gay people, TV, and newspapers want us to do something wrong and we will not. They talk too much about sex these people. This is sick of them. That is why I don’t want any of my children, nephews, nieces, or anyone I know to go to public school. They want you to believe that the way you behave is okay if you can make others say it is okay,” says Enam Bahoura, a Chaldean parent.

The nationally-acclaimed Catholic high school with a large enrollment of Chaldeans finds themselves under target of the local papers for teaching their religious convictions. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, owned by Gannett News ran what many in southeast Michigan feel are biased articles to promote the homosexual agenda.